California shooting suspect kills himself after Lunar New Year massacre

MONTEREY PARK, California — A gunman killed 10 people at a ballroom dance hall during a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration late on Saturday near Los Angeles before fleeing the scene and later killing himself when approached by police on Sunday, authorities said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said during a Sunday afternoon press conference the motive for the shooting was not known. He identified the suspect as Huu Can Tran, 72, who wielded a pistol with a high-capacity magazine.

“We want to know, we want to know how something this awful can happen,” Luna told reporters.

Luna said Tran turned a handgun on himself on Sunday morning as police approached a white van he was driving in Torrance, about 20 miles (34 km) from the site of the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park.

Five of the victims were male and five were female, Luna said. Their identities have not been made public. Another ten people were shot, and seven of them remain hospitalized, with at least one person in critical condition, authorities said.

The sheriff’s department released images of the suspect apparently taken from surveillance camera footage showing him wearing spectacles, dressed in a dark jacket and a dark beanie hat with white stripe.

Luna confirmed that Tran was involved in another incident at a dance venue in the neighboring city of Alhambra about 20 minutes after the Saturday night shooting in Monterey Park. At the second venue, witnesses said Tran walked in holding a gun that patrons were able to grab. No one was shot and Tran fled, Luna said.

When police arrived at the Monterey Park ballroom, people were “pouring out of the location screaming,” department captain Andrew Meyer told reporters at a news briefing.

The shooting took place after 10 p.m. PST (0600 GMT on Sunday) around the location of a two-day Chinese Lunar New Year celebration where many downtown streets are closed for festivities that draw thousands of people from across Southern California. Police said the celebrations planned for Sunday were canceled.

A close-knit community

Residents stood gazing at the many blocks sealed off with police tape on Sunday in Monterey Park. Chester Chong, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, described the city of about 60,000 people as a quiet, peaceful, beautiful place where everybody knows each other and helps each other.

About 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Los Angeles, the city has for decades been a destination for immigrants from China. Around 65% of its residents are Asian, according to U.S. Census data, and the city is known for its many Chinese restaurants and groceries.

“People were calling me last night, they were scared this was a hate crime,” Chong said at the scene.

The Star Ballroom Dance Studio opened in 1990, and its website features many photographs of past Lunar New Year celebrations showing patrons smiling and dancing in party clothes in its large, brightly lit ballroom.

Most of its patrons are middle-aged or elderly, though children also attend youth dance classes, according to a teacher at the studio who asked to not be named.

“Those are normal working people,” the teacher said. “Some are retired and just looking for an exercise or social interaction.”

A flyer posted on the website advertised Saturday night’s new year party, running from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

The gunshots were mistaken by some for new year fireworks, according to Tiffany Chiu, 30, who was celebrating at her parents’ home near the ballroom.

“A lot of older people live here, it’s usually really quiet,” she said. “This is not something you expect here.”

Video taken by local news media showed injured people, many of them appearing to be middle aged, being loaded into ambulances on stretchers.

President Joe Biden condemned the killings in a written statement and said he had directed his Homeland Security adviser to mobilize federal support to local authorities.

Mass shootings are recurrent in the United States, and the attack in Monterey Park was the deadliest since May 2022, when a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. The deadliest shooting in California history was in 1984 when a gunman killed 21 people at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, near San Diego.

-reuters

At least six dead in California shooting

SAN FRANCISCO — Six people were killed and 12 others injured, some critically, in a shooting early Sunday morning in California's state capital of Sacramento.

The city's police chief, Kathy Lester, told reporters that around 2:00 am, "a large fight took place" in the downtown area just before "multiple shooters" opened fire.

Officers on patrol nearby heard the gunshots and saw people running, she said.

Upon arriving at the scene, "they encountered a large crowd and multiple gunshot victims."

Despite attempts at resuscitation, 6 victims were pronounced dead at the scene, 3 men and 3 women -- all adults.

Twelve others were hit by gunfire and are being treated in local hospitals, Lester said.

At a press conference Sunday morning, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg described some of the hospitalized as "seriously and critically injured."

He also called on anyone with information to contact authorities or submit evidence via a scannable QR code.

Lester said that a "stolen handgun" had been recovered at the scene, and that investigators had already received multiple videos and tips from members of the public.

A video posted online Sunday appeared to show people scuffling in the street, then starting to run as gunfire can be heard. AFP could not verify the footage, and it was not known if there was a direct relation, but local police said they were aware of the video.

"It was just horrific," said community activist Berry Accius, who arrived minutes after the shooting.

"Just as soon as I walked up you saw a chaotic scene, police all over the place, victims with blood all over their bodies, folks screaming, folks crying, people going, 'Where is my brother?' Mothers crying and trying to identify who their child was," he told local broadcaster KXTV.

The shooting happened in the downtown area, just blocks from the state capitol and close to the venue where the NBA's Sacramento Kings play.

The San Francisco Chronicle quoted a woman at the scene as saying she had been told that her husband of 12 years was among the dead.

The woman, whom the paper did not name, said a stranger had answered her husband's telephone when their daughter called, but that she had been unable to find out what had happened, despite being on police lines for several hours.

"It sounds like a lot of innocent people lost their lives tonight," the Chronicle quoted the woman saying.

"We haven't gotten an answer."

'DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND' 

Mayor Steinberg said it was difficult to find the right words to describe the tragedy.

"The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend," he said, adding that he was waiting for more information about the incident. 

"Rising gun violence is the scourge of our city, state and nation, and I support all actions to reduce it," he said.

The mass casualty shooting is the latest in the United States, where firearms are involved in approximately 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, in a post on Twitter, said "We cannot continue to let gun violence be the new normal," and described gun violence as a "crisis" for the United States.

Lax gun laws and a constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favored by the majority of Americans.

Three-quarters of all homicides in the US are committed with guns, and the number of pistols, revolvers and other firearms sold continues to rise.

More than 23 million guns were sold in 2020 -- a record -- on top of 20 million in 2021, according to data compiled by website Small Arms Analytics.

That number does not include "ghost" guns, which are sold disassembled, lack serial numbers, and are highly prized in criminal circles.

In June 2021, 30 percent of American adults said they owned at least one gun, according to a Pew survey.

Agence France-Presse 

2 women killed, child hurt in shooting at Texas dormitory

COMMERCE, Texas  — Two women were killed and a child was wounded in a shooting Monday morning at a university dormitory in Texas, officials said.

A recommendation for students and employees to shelter in place was lifted early Monday afternoon at Texas A&M University-Commerce, and police said there appeared to be no other threats. Officials have not identified the suspected shooter.

University police Chief Bryan Vaughn said officers responding to a call at about 10:17 a.m. found two dead women in a room at Pride Rock residence hall. He said a boy about 2 years old was also in the room and was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition.

Vaughn did not take questions after a news conference and did not say if the women were students.

Classes were canceled for the day at the university located in the city about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northeast of Dallas.

The university lifted the shelter-in-place recommendation about an hour and a half after it was announced on Twitter.

But the university said that even with the lifting of the recommendation, the residence hall and the surrounding area was still blocked off due to the ongoing investigation.

The university said the student center would be available for displaced students and that counselors were available there.

Larry Cooper III, a freshman who lives in the Pride Rock residence hall, told the Dallas Morning News that he left his room Monday just before the shelter-in-place was announced. He said he was waiting in a friend’s room on the first floor of the residence hall.

“There’s police blocking the doorways, but other than that we’re all just kind of sitting in and waiting on the news to happen,” Cooper said.

Last October, two people were killed and a dozen others injured in an off-campus shooting at a homecoming and Halloween party involving Texas A&M-Commerce students.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Police: 1 person killed at Illinois mall, shooter at large

ORLAND PARK, Ill. — Authorities say a man was shot and killed at a suburban Chicago mall and the suspect remains at large.

Orland Park police say the 19-year-old was shot in the center of Orland Square Mall and ran away before collapsing outside a clothing store Monday evening. The man later died at the hospital.

Deputy Police Chief Joseph Mitchell says a bystander suffered a graze wound to the leg and was being treated at another hospital.

Mitchell says security video showed a male shooter fleeing the mall but it’s unclear if he continued on foot or got into a vehicle. Mitchell calls the shooting an “isolated incident,” saying video shows the two people involved knew each other and that the victim was “targeted.”

Police departments from several neighboring towns, as well as the FBI and ATF responded to the mall about 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) southwest of Chicago./gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Strasbourg shooting suspect identified

STRASBOURG, France — Two police officials have identified the suspected Strasbourg gunman as 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt.

One police source said Chekatt’s criminal record mentions 25 judicial cases, including several serious cases of robbery.

The official said his apartment was searched by police on Tuesday morning — hours before the shooting — in an investigation for attempted murder. He was not at home at the time.

The two officials spoke anonymously because they were not allowed to speak publicly on an ongoing investigation.

The suspect was still on the run on Wednesday after he fired gunshots near the famous Christmas market of Strasbourg, killing three and wounding at least 13 people.

The suspected Strasbourg gunman was convicted of robbery in Germany in 2016 and sentenced to two years and three months in prison for breaking into a dental practice and a pharmacy.

The verdict from a district court in Singen, obtained by The Associated Press, says he was also sentenced to prison in France in 2008 and in Basel, Switzerland in 2013 for various robberies. News agency dpa reported he was deported to France in 2017.

According to the verdict, the suspected attacker grew up with six siblings in Strasbourg, worked for local authorities after leaving school and had been unemployed since 2011. He said he had been traveling a lot and had already spent four years in prison. The German robberies took place in Mainz near Frankfurt in 2012 and in Engen near the Swiss border in 2016.

The European Parliament is planning a minute of silence at noon to remember the victims of the Strasbourg shooting, which happened only a few kilometers from the legislature.

European Parliament Antonio Tajani called the shooting “a criminal attack against peace, against democracy, against our model of life.”

He said even as the Parliament went into a lockdown late Tuesday, legislators continued their work until midnight.


"We have to go forward and not change our ways,” Tajani said. /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Tragedy hits eSports with NFL video game tournament shooting

The rapidly expanding eSports world of competitive videogaming was struck by tragedy Sunday with a mass shooting at a Madden NFL 19 Classic tournament in Jacksonville, Florida.

Events streamed online allow hundreds of millions of fans around the world to watch video game teams and players just as they would go to a stadium or arena and view a beloved local sports club.

Madden NFL 19 is the latest edition of the video game series named after retired NFL Super Bowl champion coach and long-time television commentator John Madden.


The game, considered one of the most realistic digital NFL games, was released by manufacturer EA Sports earlier this month ahead of the 2018-19 NFL campaign that begins September 6.

Tournaments of various styles of video games have grown in popularity in recent years, with shooting, strategy, and fighting for multi-player teams evolving into some major arena events.

The Florida event was a regional qualifier for a Madden NFL 19 Classic tournament that would deliver a $25,000 top prize to the eventual champion at the main event in Las Vegas later this year.

Games feature soundtracks and realistic player motion for rushers, blockers and quarterbacks and receivers.

“This is a horrible situation and our deepest sympathies go out to all involved,” EA Sports tweeted.

The NFL said in a statement, “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific tragedy today in Jacksonville. Our hearts go out to all those affected.”

The boom in eSports has caught the attention of such sports groups as FIFA and the NBA, who boast popular video games and leagues, and eSports is a demonstration sport in the Asian Games currently ongoing in Jakarta, expected to move to full medal status in 2022.

The International Olympic Committee has studied the possible future inclusion of eSports medals in its offerings.


There was minor controversy over the Madden 19 release having the name of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick censored, a move EA Sports said was required because with him no longer in the NFL and not a member of the NFL Players Association, they did not have the rights to use him in the game.

Kaepernick began the kneeling protest before US anthems at NFL games while a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, a move that has continued despite harsh criticism from US President Donald Trump.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Thrasher claims first Rio gold for USA in shooting

American teenager Virginia Thrasher claimed the first Rio Olympics gold medal in the shooting on Saturday.

The 19-year-old won the women’s 10m air rifle title at the Deodoro shooting venue, holding her nerve to see off China’s Du Li on the final shot.

She finished with 208 points, one clear of 2004 Athens champion Du as Olympic chief Thomas Bach looked on in the crowd.

The bronze medal went to China’s defending champion Yi Siling.

source: sports.inquirer.net

US mall on lockdown after shots fired

PARAMUS, New Jersey—Police are searching for a gunman at a mall in northern New Jersey after shots were fired inside it just before closing.

WCBS-TV reports that shots were fired at the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall around 9:30 p.m. Monday. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

People inside the mall tell the television station that it is on lockdown.

Frightened people are tweeting that they’re being escorted out by armed state troopers. One woman writes that she ran from the mall “screaming.”

Emergency radio transmissions say authorities called in SWAT teams. No contact has been made with a shooter.

The mall is located in Bergen County, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) southwest of Manhattan.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Third student dies after Ohio school shooting

CHARDON - The death toll from a shooting at an Ohio school rose to three Tuesday as family reported that another wounded student had died.

The 17-year old gunman, identified as TJ Lane, shot five fellow students Monday at Chardon High shortly after the start of the school day.

He is expected in court later Tuesday.

The third student was identified as Demetrius Hewlin, who died of his injuries Tuesday morning, MetroHealth hospital said.

"We are very saddened by the loss of our son and others in our Chardon community," his family said in a statement.

"Demetrius was a happy young man who loved life and his family and friends. We will miss him very much but we are proud that he will be able to help others through organ donation."

Police chief Tim McKenna announced the death of the second victim, Russell King, at a news conference earlier Tuesday.

"It's sad to say -- at this point I'm going to announce the second student Russell King has passed," McKenna told reporters.

"At 4:49 this morning, the medical examiner's office contacted me to advise me of that. And I feel sorry not only for that family, but all the families that are affected by this," he said.

The other victim, 16-year-old Daniel Parmertor, died in hospital shortly after the shooting.

The shooting has shocked residents and students of the small Ohio town, who have described Lane as an "outcast" who had been bullied and said he had posted warnings on Twitter and left disturbing messages on Facebook. — Agence France Presse

source: gmanetwork.com